Progressive Era Reformers

Characteristics of Progressives

--mostly from the middle class (educated) --many women involved --addressed problems stemming from industrialization, urbanization, immigration, corruption and waste --wanted to activate the govt to seek solutions --efficiency and "expert" leadership --rejected Social Darwinism --saw expanded democracy as answer to problems

Woodrow Wilson

President whose Progressive agenda aimed at breaking down the "Triple Wall of Privilege"; his reforms included lowering the tariff, creating a federal income tax, establishing the Federal Reserve system, and creating the Federal Trade Commission to oversee big business; he became distracted from Progressive reforms b/c of WWI

Gifford Pinchot

Progressive Republican head of the Forestry Service under TR and Taft; he pioneered the conservation ethic of maintaining a balance between use of natural resources for business and recreation; fired during the Ballinger-Pinchot affair

Robert M. Lafollette

Progressive governor and later US Senator; he developed the "Wisconsin Idea" using academics to help him devise Progressive reforms in his home state such as railroad rate restrictions, direct election of senators and the open primary

Carrie Nation

Radical proponent of Prohibition, she was famous for using a hatchet to attack barrels of alcohol in saloons and bars; her eccentric ways raised awareness of the growing Prohibition movement

Florence Kelley

child labor opponent and advocate for children's education and labor rights including the 8-hour workday; she was also a co-founder of the NAACP

William "Big Bill" Haywood

co-founder and leader of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) whose goal was to organize all workers into one union to overthrow capitalism

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones

labor activist and co-founder of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW); she took up the plight of women and child workers

Lincoln Steffens

muckraker who wrote Shame of the Cities; he exposed corruption in city government and police departments

Ida Tarbell

muckraker; her book The History of Standard Oil exposed the cutthroat tactics of big business and helped inspire the anti-trust movement

Emma Goldman

outspoken radical who favored anarchism, free love and birth control for women; she was deported because of fears of her ongoing agitation

Lewis Hine

photographer who used his pictures to draw attention to social problems such as child labor and the poor living conditions of immigrants

Teddy Roosevelt

promoted the "Square Deal" approach to using the presidency to balance the interests of competing groups in society; pursued a Progressive agenda focused on the "3 C's": consumer protection, control of corporations, and conservation of natural resources

Walter Rauschenbusch

regarded as the leading minister in the Social Gospel movement; preached in the "Hell's Kitchen" neighborhood of New York City

John Spargo

wrote Bitter Cry of the Children which drew attention to the dangerous conditions in the coal industry that children endured; his muckraking led to attempts to limit child labor practices

Upton Sinclair

wrote The Jungle which exposed the disgusting conditions in the meatpacking industry; his muckraking led to passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act

Ida B. Wells

African American journalist who published statistics about lynching and supported laws against it

George Waring

New York City sanitation commissioner who pioneered garbage disposal, street sweeping and sewer system techniques which inspired cities to improve disease rates and water quality

John Muir

Naturalist, writer and advocate of U.S. forest conservation, he founded the Sierra Club and helped establish Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks

Margaret Sanger

founded Planned Parenthood and educated woman on the use of birth control, her work led to loosening of birth control laws nationwide

Jane Addams

founder of Hull House, one of the first settlement houses in the US; she believed in direct involvement with the urban poor and helped establish the profession of social work; also campaigned for women's suffrage

W. E. B. DuBois

leading voice for Northern African-Americans, he helped found the Niagara Movement and the NAACP which called for immediate legal challenge to Jim Crow laws and discrimination; favored the role of the "talented tenth" of black leadership

Booker T. Washington

leading voice for Southern African-Americans, he believed that blacks should achieve economic and vocational progress before challenging segregation; his "Atlanta Compromise" made him the favored Black Progressive among white leaders; head of Tuskegee Institute

William H. Taft

more conservative in many areas than Teddy Roosevelt; his agenda drove a wedge b/w conservative Republicans and Progressive Republicans over the tariff issue, trust-busting of US Steel, and his support for Richard Ballinger over Gifford Pinchot; lost reelection

Jacob Riis

muckraker journalist who wrote How the Other Half Lives; exposed the poor living conditions of New York's ethnic tenement neighborhoods; his work led to new codes for housing and sanitation in New York

Alice Paul

women's suffrage leader who eventually broke w/ NAWSA and founded the NWP to focus solely on the passage of women's suffrage amendment; radical in her methods, she was often arrested

Carrie Chapman Catt

women's suffrage leader who first proposed a "state-by-state" approach to winning the right to vote; served as president of NAWSA and led support for the ratification of the 19th amendment